BASEL, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Syngenta today highlighted results for the third year of The Good Growth
Plan, which comprises six ambitious commitments for 2020 to support the
sustainability of agriculture and the development of rural communities.

In 2016, Syngenta projects enhanced biodiversity and soil conservation
on a cumulative 9.2 million hectares of land, creating rich, connected
wildlife habitats in 34 countries. Together, these soil and biodiversity
programs cover an area close to the size of Portugal. A key contribution
came from the Soja+Verde project in Brazil, where we are working in
partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) on the restoration of
rainforest in agricultural landscapes.

To assess our progress on crop productivity, we collected data from
3,700 farms in 42 countries. This shows that the productivity and
resource efficiency of those Reference farms which use our protocols
were nearly 4% higher than the Benchmark farms.

In addition, we reached over 16.5 million smallholders with those
participating in our Reference Farms benefiting from an 8 percent
productivity increase. This demonstrates the potential of technology and
agronomic training to not only help small holders to feed themselves and
their families but also improve their livelihoods. We remain confident
of achieving our target of reaching 20 million smallholders by 2020.

Over the past year, we have also trained nearly 7 million people in the
safe use of our products, bringing the cumulative total to over 17
million farmers since the plan started – 70 percent of which are
smallholders in developing countries. And we continued to expand our
Fair Labor Program which now covers all our seeds suppliers in Latin
America and Asia Pacific.

Syngenta Chief Executive Officer, Erik Fyrwald, said: “The Good Growth
Plan exemplifies the way we do business and, through the data that is
now being generated, we are helping farmers to apply best practices and
monitor the benefits to the environment and their bottom line. Going
forward, we want to evolve the plan further to better understand how
farmers can improve the efficiency with which they use water and reduce
their carbon emissions. And by continuing to partner with our customers,
suppliers and other stakeholders in the food value chain, we will be
better able to combine the resources and knowledge required to safely
feed the world and take care of our planet”.

1. Make crops more efficient: Increase average productivity of
the world’s major crops by 20 percent without using more land, water or
inputs.

In 2016, Syngenta worked with a global network of more than 1,000
Reference farms and – for comparison purposes – almost 2,700 Benchmark
farms, grouped in clusters of similar agro-climatic conditions and
grower characteristics. The Reference farms have adopted tailored crop
protocols and have increased productivity by a global average of 1.2
percent against baseline data. This was 3.8 percentage points higher
than Benchmark farms.

2. Rescue more farmland: Improve the fertility of 10 million
hectares of farmland on the brink of degradation.

In 2016, Syngenta programs improved soil quality on over 1.9 million
hectares. On a cumulative basis, we have reached around 40 percent of
the 2020 target. The increase in 2016 was due mainly to better
integration of soil management practices into commercial offers.

3. Help biodiversity flourish: Enhance biodiversity on 5 million
hectares of farmland.

In 2016, biodiversity was enhanced on 3.3 million hectares of
agricultural landscape in 34 countries. We have developed a new
methodology for assessing environmental and socioeconomic impacts of
biodiversity interventions in agricultural landscapes, and are working
with the conservation community to highlight the importance of
landscape connectivity to policymakers.

4. Empower smallholders: Reach 20 million smallholders and enable
them to increase productivity by 50 percent.

Syngenta has reached 16.6 million smallholders through sales and is
measuring their increase in productivity on smallholder Reference
farms. In 2016, productivity on these Reference farms increased by 8
percent.

In 2016, Syngenta and its partners trained 6.8 million people in
better and safer farming. We have expanded our partnership with the
NGO Solidaridad to train farmers in agronomy and safety around the
world. With the Sustainable Food Lab, we are looking into measuring
the impact of our business on smallholder livelihoods in order to
optimize our way of working with smallholders.

Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food
security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available
resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions,
our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how
crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation,
enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities. To learn more
visit www.syngenta.com
and www.goodgrowthplan.com.
Follow us on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/Syngenta.

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